Pages

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

I’ll admit it: when I bought Nick Harkaway’s debut novel The
Gone-Away World a couple of years ago, it was entirely because of the
cover. Sure, the synopsis sounded like
fun (a madcap post-apocalyptic war involving bombs that make things just…go
away) and the author had a pedigree (he’s John LeCarré’s son), but the cover
was neon pink and green and fuzzy. I
don’t mean fuzzy like the edges were blurry: I mean literally fuzzy like
covered in fuzz. I had to have it. (I’m
a sucker for really great cover design, like Simon Winchester’s Crack in the
Edge of the World, which had a jacket that folded out into a huge newspaper
front page and was infinitely better than the book it contained.)

It didn’t hurt that the book within the cover was
fantastic. (And has an
awe-inspiring twist partway
through.) And then I waited for Harkaway
to publish another book. And waited. And waited.
Sure, he’d occasionally mention on Twitter that he was working on
something, but his Tweets (though enjoyable) were no substitute for a second
book. And then, finally:
Angelmaker. And I was not disappointed.

It’s hard to described the novel’s plot or even its
genre. I guess if H.G. Wells
collaborated with Thomas Pynchon, you might get Angelmaker. It’s another madcap adventure, although
rather than war against strange creatures using magic bombs, this one has our
heroes (led by the decidedly repressible clock repairman Joshua Joseph Spork)
doing battle against technology-obsessed cultists and clockwork bees. Also, there’s an octogenarian badass grandma
with an adorably decrepit dog.

It’s that kind of novel.
And it’s hard not to love it.

Harkaway’s writing is mindbogglingly imaginative: memorable
characters, logic-defying (yet never quite illogical) plotting, and
unpredictable twists. Angelmaker is much
like a finely-built baroque clock: gazillions of pieces in constant movement,
adding up to something gorgeous.